Written Communication skills

vendredi 2 septembre 2022 14:20

Intro : The six functions of langage ( Jakobson ) Activity : PROFESSIONAL WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
• The factor of Context Situation 1 :
• The message communicated You are a trainee and your manager is away on business. He/She has forgotten to send
• The sender ( its information ) some figures to the director of the company, who needs them for a meeting in the
• The receiver ( how we call him/her ) afternoon.
• The contact factor ( ex : greetings ) It is 10am and your manager calls you to send the information to him.
• The use of ls language code Communication Informative
Objective

What are the characteristics of professional writing ? Receiver The director

• Purposeful Message Content Introduction explaining why is the trainee sending the email instead
• Economical of the manager because of the indisposition of the manager to send
• Reader oreiented the figures at moment + The figures that needed to be sent
Document to be Email
written
Effectiveness in writing :
- Quicly —> Concise
- Corectly —> clear Situation 2 :
- Completely —> complete It is August and many of your colleagues are on holiday. You are in charge of private key
accounts, and you have to replace your colleague, in charge of public key accounts, in
- By each recipient —> adapted
case of an emergency on his files. In this situation, you have helped out one of your
colleague's clients who experienced serious technical problems. Once the problem was
4 Questions to ask yourself for Effective Writing resolved, you want to leave a written record for your colleague.
- What is the Objective ? ( Is the purpose informative ( = transmit information ) or Incentive ( = involved in Communication Incentive
You need to attract their
the action ) ? ) Objective
attention —>
- Who is the Receiver ? ( Professional/ Personal, identity In-House/ Externally ) Receiver Colleague in charge of public key accounts that I replaced during
- What message should I convey ? ( context and reason for transmission, the expected effects, the main his holidays
information and secondary information ) Message Content Detailed report about how I managed the colleague's client’s
- How to pass the Message on ? ( face to face or medias ( paper ? Digital ? ) —> which distribution technical problems and.
channel --> in which document format ) Document to be Email
written
2 types of Professional Writing
• Internally / In House : memo, meeting agenda, emails, newsletter, phone calls, instant messages, Intranet Situation 3 :
( only for employees ) You are in charge of a team of 5 people assigned to work for client X. You will have offices
at this client's premises for the duration of the assignment.
• Externally : press release, commercial documents, articles, podcast, conference, media announcements
The DHR of X explains to you that every year the company closes between Christmas and
( clients, suppliers )
New Year's Day : therefore, you must inform your employees of the importance of taking
holidays over this period.
2 Main Objectives Communication Informative
• Informative texts : briefing notes, memos, reports, policy briefs, minutes, letters or emails.… Objective
• Incentive texts : sales proposals, emailing and direct mailings, •advertisements… Receiver The 5 people of the team I manage to work for client X
Message Content Explaining the need of taking holidays between Christmas and New
Rules for Different types of written communication Year's Day because the company is closed every year on this period
1.Briefing Notes / Memorandum ( = A usually brief informal communication typically written for Document to be Email
interoffice circulation ) written
• Concise
• Clear Situation 4 :
• Neutral style The department for which you are in charge has just been reorganised. In the absence of
• No title used = does not look like a letter an assistant, the director of the company asks you to inform all the employees of this new
organisation.
==> Both Normally the
job of the manager 2.Policy Brief / Reports ( = tool to present research and recommendations to a non-specialized audience ) Communication Informative
Objective
• Structured writing : introduction, body of text, conclusion
Receiver The employees of the department I am in charge of
• Titles part & sub-parts
• More personal writing : both author and signatory Message Content Explaining of the new organization that was done in the
department
• Decision-making objective : information, analysis, strategic/operational perspective or proposals
Document to be written Group email

3.Minutes / Reporting ( What was said during a meeting )

Situation 5 :
• More formal in its standards of construction and writing
You have just received a letter from a supplier particularly unhappy about the irregularity
• Minutes can be used as evidence in the case of disputes - becomes a reference of payments with your company... Within a technical department, you are not responsible
• Often minutes are followed by a record of decisions for this situation: you place your orders and the accounting department takes care of the
rest. Nevertheless, you want to respond to this supplier and reassure him/her about future
payments... How can you do this?
Laswell’s theory :
Structure of Writing Templates Communication Informative
5W’s = Who / What / Objective
Questions forms :
Where / When / Why / Receiver The supplier of your company who is unhappy with the
- Open-ended
How irregularity of their payments
- Close-ended
Message Content Reassuring message about the future payments

Intent ( = how you will deal with the problem ) Document to be Letter
written
- Introduction
- Situation : problem data : what, where, when…
- Problem : difficulty to solve
- Resolution : solutions retained
- Informations : details of solutions
- Conclusion : end with a call to action

==> Procedure
▪ Let’s look at the situation, raise the problem, experiment
▪ Take action with the results of the experiments

• For Facts : in the introduction present the facts by attracting the reader’s attention
• For Opinion : develop the elements of analysis, explanation arguments
• For Reccomandations : in the conclusion, leave the recipient with a positive impression and encourage
him/her to act in the way desired

Yesterday ( Introduction ) = previous situation problem

Today ( Development ) = treatment of the problem, actions to be taken, analysis and proposed situation
Tomorrow ( Conclusion ) = results or proposals expected from the recipient

The Written Process

Content
• “Main theme" taken as a reference within the structure of the different parts (letter or email)
• Introduction involves the reader : use of catch-phrase to attract attention
• Strong impactful conclusion
• Short, structured sentences
• Vocabulary, style and level of language adapted to the situation
• Correct expression and formatting form